Conventional techniques for installing sealing members in door installation openings of vehicles include weatherstrip-installing apparatuses having automatic installation devices such as industrial robots for installing weatherstrips in door installation openings of vehicles, as disclosed in, for example, JP-B-3148496. The weatherstrip-installing apparatus disclosed in JP-B-3148496 will be discussed in relation to FIG. 7 hereof.
Referring to FIG. 7, the weatherstrip-installing apparatus includes an arm 101 of an industrial robot, and a weatherstrip-installing head 102 attached to the arm 101. The weatherstrip-installing head 102 includes a roller around which a weatherstrip 103 is trained for installation on a flange 107 formed along an edge of an opening 106 of a vehicle body 104.
The roller moves along the flange 107 pressing the weatherstrip 103 onto the flange 107, thereby installing the weatherstrip 103 on the flange 107.
The robot can be designed to memorize a previously set route along which the roller moves pressing the weatherstrip 103 to install the weatherstrip 103 on the flange 107. In this case, however, while moving along the previous set route, the roller may gradually closely to or away from the flange 107 if the vehicle body 104 is displaced or manufacturing errors of the flange 107 occur. The movement of the roller gradually closely to or away from the flange 107 does not enable the roller to exert a constant pressing force on the weatherstrip 103. As a result, the weatherstrip 103 can not be uniformly installed along the flange 107.
Where the roller can not move along the flange 107 as discussed above, the route should be corrected to prevent the roller from being released from the weatherstrip 103.
There is a need to improve the sealing-member-installing technique such that the sealing member can be installed precisely uniformly along the flange, accommodating the displacement of the vehicle body or the manufacturing errors of the flange.